Organizational Constructions of a New Right

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

New claims to health-based rights have become a center of mobilization and dispute. This research examines new rights imposed within health-care settings. It will make intellectual contributions to the study of (1) organizational constructions of rights and (2) the relationship between health and rights. It engages significant questions about interconnections between law, health, and rights and investigates a new site at a moment of legal innovation. The hypotheses incorporate insights from research into organizational dispute processing. The research design purposely captures the fact that adaptation to a newly enacted right may vary widely across different types of health care organizations as well as engages directly with the unique characteristics inherent in health-care settings. The goal of this project is to understand how medical organizations adapt to the imposition of new rights. The study is grounded in sociological theories that emphasize "law on the ground" (that is, what people are actually doing) rather than "law on the books" (formal legal rules) as the primary place to study how law works. Different types of health care organizations in different locations may interpret these regulations differently. Original data will be gathered in the form of 120 in-person interviews in selected areas around the country with the designated grievance handlers in hospitals, doctor's offices, and surgical centers. The study will include both urban and rural health care sites, for example, and private religious hospitals as well as public hospitals. Systematic analysis of interview transcripts will help researchers understand how health care administrators approach problems of rights-enactment in their organizations and whether their solutions vary by type of institution, location, ownership structure, size, and other variables.